Anarchitecture part 2

Posted on June 30, 2011

What does the process of building a better world actually look like?

I asked ya’ll that a few weeks ago and got some great responses, on my blog, on facebook, and even over twitter. Now I’m asking it again, but this time I’m asking the artists among ya’ll to, quite literally, paint a picture.

Contest opens July 1.

(repost from the Beltaine’s Fire site)

Anarchitecture is about taking the broken pieces of this civilization and replacing or reforging them into something new, something better. We’ve spent the last two and a half years writing and refining these songs to paint a picture of resistance, of struggle, of hope for a better future and rage at the injustices and brutality of this one. But we need your help to finish it.

Show us what Anarchitecture looks like to you – whether you do it with a pen, a paintbrush, a camera, or a computer. It might be a community garden taking over an entire city block and climbing up the sides of buildings, a group of worker-owned businesses pulling resources to help other workers buy their workplaces and democratize them, a massive block party that brings neighbors together and puts local radical musicians front and center, a photo of a protest or Direct Action you participated in, or something else entirely. Include a description of the story behind your image and the organization, group, or campaign you want to support. Upload your art to the contest page we’ve set up on facebook and share it with your friends to help gain votes and get other folks involved.
We’ll take the winning artwork and use it as the cover art for the album and contribute 25% of the money we make from album sales in the first month to the winner’s organization, campaign, or group of choice.*

All of the entries and the groups they support will be archived on our facebook page so folks from around the world can see them, learn about each others campaigns and organizations, and hopefully use this as a starting point to network and support each other. After all, it’s not just about victory for one campaign, it’s about supporting each other’s struggles. So please take the time to read up on what your friends and neighbors are doing and lend them a hand where you can by contributing directly to their movements.

Anarchitecture isn’t just an album or a contest. It’s a movement, a vision of the better world we could build together if we just had the courage and commitment to stand up and make it happen. Anything is possible, even freedom. Let’s make it happen.
*Terms of contest and eligibility of groups are as defined by Contest Rules.

The goal here is to help map out the intersections between art and activism. If you’re an artist, please enter. If you have friends who are artists, please encourage them to enter. If you’re involved in grassroots organizing please encourage he artists in your group to enter and sponsor your group in their entries. I’ll be straight up here – I would much prefer for the winning entry to be for an anarchist group doing prisoner support work or a food not bombs chapter, or an IWW local or something like that rather then a big nonprofit, but if ya’ll don’t enter you can’t win. So help me out and let us help you out in return. If nothing else it’s a chance to show off your art and put info about your group in a public place where folks will see it.